The Mystery of Banana Fish

Twelve years later, Griffin — now severely mentally

handicapped — is cared for by his younger brother Ash,
the leader of a gang of street children in New York City.
One night, Ash encounters a mortally wounded man who
gives him a vial of an unknown substance and an address
in California; the man utters the words "banana fish"
before dying.
Ash begins to investigate the meaning of "banana fish",
though he is impeded by Dino Golzine, a Corsican mob
boss who had groomed Ash as a sex slave and heir to his
criminal empire. In the course of his investigation, Ash
gathers several allies: Eiji Okumura and Shunichi Ibe,
photojournalists who have traveled from Japan to report
on street gangs; Shorter Wong, a gang leader who
controls Chinatown; and Max, whom Ash encounters in
prison while detained on a false murder charge. When
Griffin is shot and killed in a fight with Golzine's men, the
group sets out to solve the mystery of "banana fish"
together.
Ash and his allies travel to the address in California,
finding a mansion occupied by a man revealed to be Yut-
Lung Lee, the youngest son of China's largest crime
family. They later encounter the home's true occupant, a
doctor who informs them that Banana Fish is an
untraceable drug that brainwashes its users. Golzine
intends to sell the drug to the United States government,
which seeks to use it to overthrow communist
governments in South America. The group is subsequently
captured by Golzine's men, who inject Shorter with
Banana Fish and instruct him to kill Eiji. When Shorter
begs Ash to kill him in a moment of lucidity, Ash fatally
shoots him.